Bug#621795: Timidity Karaoke support issue

[arachna@distasis.com]

Package: timidity
Version: (2.13.2-39+b1) 

In 2008, I reported a bug to the Timidity mailing list regarding playback of Karaoke midi files created using ABC notation
tools such as abc2midi.  One of the developers promptly created a patch for the bug.  I also found out that despite the
fact the tarball at the Timidity archive hasn't been updated since 2004, quite a lot of bugs fixes, patches and
improvements were being added to cvs by new Timidity developers.  Among those bug fixes and patches were several
improvements to the xaw interface including fixes to scrolling and lyrics timing and to the display of a player piano that
gives information on what notes are playing.

Here's a link to the ABC midi patch:
http://www.mail-archive.com/timidity-talk@lists.sourceforge.net/msg00119.html
Here's a link to an xaw scrolling patch:
http://www.mail-archive.com/timidity-talk@lists.sourceforge.net/msg00115.html
Here are links to discussions of other patches made including details on what was fixed:
http://www.mail-archive.com/timidity-talk@lists.sourceforge.net/msg00050.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/timidity-talk@lists.sourceforge.net/msg00060.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/timidity-talk@lists.sourceforge.net/msg00061.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/timidity-talk@lists.sourceforge.net/msg00072.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/timidity-talk@lists.sourceforge.net/msg00087.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/timidity-talk@lists.sourceforge.net/msg00097.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/timidity-talk@lists.sourceforge.net/msg00102.html

Karaoke support can not only be entertaining, but also educational and I know several teachers that use it to help their
students learn.  It would be nice to have better ABC notation support for playing Karaoke midi in Timidity so that
educators and others can create their own music compositions with lyrics and have a useful program on Linux to play them
back.  Have tried many other Karaoke programs and Timidity is the best option I can find on Linux.  Kmid never worked on my machine and I typically don't use a KDE desktop just Openbox.  Pykaraoke has more lyrics timing issues on my machine
than Timidity does.  Xbmc uses code from Timidity and timing is also not as good as Timidity itself.  Other programs I've
tried in the past just crash.  Have not been able to find any other programs on Linux that can do better than a patched
version of Timidity using xaw interface and word tracing option.

I just installed Debian Squeeze on my computer and was very disappointed to find the Debian version of Timidity showing the same bugs I'd encountered when I reported my problems to the Timidity list back in 2008.  I fully intend to build Timidity from source using a cvs version that includes the patches for xaw scrolling and lyrics timing and the ABC notation midi fix.  However, I could not help wondering how many other Debian users out there either prefer not to build programs from source or are unaware of all the wonderful and useful patches and bug fixes that new Timidity developers have made since the 2004 release since they're only available via cvs.

I am, therefore, asking if it would be possible to add a Debian package for Timidity from cvs which includes these patches.  Would like to thank you in advance for any effort you make to improve the quality of music tools available on Linux.